The invention relates to musical instruments and more particularly to stringed instruments utilizing special musical effects.
Electric guitars and other stringed musical instruments frequently employ a pick-up of some type, an electrical signal from the pick-up being amplified and applied to a speaker. Frequently, these types of stringed instruments utilize a special musical effect generator in series with the output of the pick-up in order to alter its frequency response and/or amplitude characteristics. Typical special effects include those known in the musical arts as wah wah, phasing, flanging, distortion, compression, slow attack, percussive attack/decay, percussion instrument simulators, and the like. Conventional instruments provide control of special effect generators by knobs, foot switches, foot pedals and in some cases by preset signal levels or by a preset rate of automatic repetition. Use of hand or foot controls present various difficulties to the musician who generally uses both hands to operate the musical instrument and who may desire to move from a fixed position while playing. Foot controls also tend to be tiring when constantly pumped to produce certain musical effects, and extremely rapid musical effects are not physically possible. Preset signal level controls produce a special musical effect at only one preset level, and do not allow use of the full dynamic range of the instrument. Automatic repetition special effects limit the musician to one preset tempo which is often pleasing only for a limited time. The present invention solves the above described problems by providing a means for controlling special musical effect generators in synchronism with use of a pick means, and without requiring any other controls to be manipulated by the musician.